ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since John Grierson first coined the term “documentary film” in the 1920s, there has
been a debate about the objectivity or subjectivity of the filmmaker. Some theoreticians
believe that a documentary filmmaker may not interact subjectively with her subject.
Contemporary perspectives lean towards acknowledging the subjectivity of the
filmmaker, and accept that subjectivity is intrinsic to the making of a documentary film.
Some would even argue that it is precisely the subjectivity of the filmmaker – the
meeting of an individual, subjective perspective with the pro-filmic world – that makes a
particular film unique.
Brecht believed that the structure of a theatre piece could be used to counter the
audience's uncritical emotional engagement and identification with the content of the
work. This Verfremdungseffekt enables the audience to engage intellectually with the
work. The audience does not get lost in the content of the piece, but rather views it
from a critical distance. Brecht believed that this distantiation does not exclude
entertainment, but that the audience would be able to enjoy the production while
viewing it from a critical, intellectual distance.
The self-reflexive mode of representation is identified by Nichols as one of the primary
ways for a filmmaker to engage with her subject. Self-reflexivity entails the inclusion of
cues within the film reminding the viewer that it is, indeed, a film. The motivation for
this is to make the audience aware of the constructed nature of the film, thereby
acknowledging the subjectivity of the filmmaker. The most overt form of self-reflexivity in documentary films is the inclusion of the
director in the film. The focus of this study is, however, more specifically on how
editing devices can be used to foreground the construction of a film. Structural analysis
of a selection of recent South African documentary films is undertaken as part of this
study. The result of this in-depth analysis is a list of twenty-eight conspicuous, selfreflexive
editing devices used in these films. To test the effect of self-reflexive editing devices, I purposely incorporated them into
the construction of a documentary series, Booza TV, of which I was one of the editors.
The goal of Booza TV is to change viewers' perceptions of alcohol and alcohol abuse.
Both quantitative and qualitative research results pointed to the ability of the series to
achieve this goal. The perception change, however, is not the focus of this study.
Instead, findings specifically related to the viewer's experience of the editing of the
production are analysed. These findings show that viewers do notice self-reflexive
devices, that the devices can contribute to their enjoyment of the production and that
self-reflexive devices are able to communicate subtext to the audience. The conclusion
is drawn from the research conducted in this study that the potential of a documentary
film to change viewers' perceptions is as dependent on the way the film has been
constructed as it is on the content of the film.